Mop and the method of making the same



NOV. 3, 1942. WEAVER L 2,300,821

MOP AND THE METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME Filed Sept. 15, 1941 n I I l l l l x l l I.

In ventor 529a 'n/ea ver Patented Nov. 3, 1942 M011. AND THE METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME Fred Weaver and Frederick N. McCarty, Puyallup, Wash.

Application September 15, 1941, Serial No. 410,886

5 Claims.

This invention relates to mops and the method of making the same.

Mops, as commonly made, comprise single strands of strings, wherein each strand comprises a plurality of parallel threads spirally twisted together in the familiar manner of making string. These strings are bunched and fastened together to form the mop.

Such a mop has several objections which it is the object of our invention to eliminate, namely, first, the strings disintegrate under usage and the lint threads break away therefrom and lie on the surface being cleaned and have to be individually picked up; our improved mop has no free ends to the strands and therefore-there is but little danger of any thread breaking away from the mop; second, such a mop, when hung up to dry after having had the free water wrung therefrom, will drip an appreciable pool of water, but since most of the component threads of our mop are the weft or woof threads of the fabric, they retard the drainage of the water. to the ends of the strands and hold it for evaporation with the result that the mop will not drip, when hung up to dry, if the excess free water has been but slightly wrung therefrom; third, while all mops absorb water, those having longitudinal or 'warp threads only neither retain nor absorb as much water as do mops made of fabric in which the warp threads are outnumbered by the weft 0 threads and, since in curtain netting and selvage, as used in our mop, the mesh is fairly open (about twenty threads per inch) and yet close enough to hold the water, it follows that the water is retained therein in a much greater amount than in other kinds of mops; fourth, string mops will tangle easily, but by making a mop of comparatively large strands, the strands stay separate and immediately occupy substantially parallel positions if given a slight shake; fifth, most mops are made of cheap coarse material, which is often but loosely twisted into strings, with the result that such a mop wears out fast, but our mop, being made of curtain netting and selvage, is made of such superior basic material that the threads are spun exceedingly fine and the wear thereof is very much reduced with the result of an extended life amounting to many times that of the ordinary mop and with substantially no increase in cost; sixth, since string mops tangle easily they fail to spread out, bunching up and covering only a relatively small floor area, while our mop, being made of large strands, each strand tends to extend itself its full length on the floor with the result that a larger floor space is covered and the mopping is more evenly and quickly done; seventh, mops having all warp threads, as string mops, do not have the abrasive quality possessed by our mops which are made largely of weft threads, and since these weft threads are separated by an appreciable distance from each other they rub the floor more effectively and clean it more thoroughly; eighth, many mops are made with the material very solidly packed and these mops are difficult to wring, but with our mop construction the strands lie evenly side by side resulting in the fact that the water may be easily wrung therefrom. Further objects are to improve the method of making mops whereby a continuous narrow strip of fabric may be twisted and continuously made into a series of consecutive duplex strands on each side of the center. A further object is to make tighter twisted strands by virtue of the unequal weaving of the material used.

We are aware that fabric waste material from the manufacture of stockings has been used to make mops but it is evident that the use of such material does not lend itself to continuous construction since it is made up of a number of separate endless loops and each such loop must be separately assembled into the mop, and, in some cases, each such loop has to be knotted before it is thus assembled.

We accomplish these and other objects, and perform the process of manufacture, by the devices, mechanisms, and arrangements illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which- Fig. 1 is a plan of the completed mop, ready to be attached to a suitable handle; Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof; Fig. 3 is a plan of a small piece of the strip of selvage and netting used in making the mop; Fig. 4 is an elevation of the said selvage and netting twisted into a rope; Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic side view of the machinery used in making the mop, comprising a twisting machine and a loop-forming machine; Fig. 6 is a diagrammatic plan view of the loop-forming machine; and Fig. '7 is a diagrammatic view showing a number of loops being successively fed off the loop-forming machine, and showing one strand of the mop as formed by the released loop.

Similar numerals of reference refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

In the manufacture of window curtains from netting the netting from which the curtains are made is provided with a certain width of selvage along each edge. Since the length of the material in a bolt of curtain material averages about forty yards, it is evident that about eighty yards of selvage would be obtained from a bolt. This selvage comprises merely arranging a number of warp threads along each edge close together and weaving the weft threads therethrough. This selvage together with a part of the adjacent netting is cut from the bolt and is often thrown away or sold for a very low price. Now, in making curtain material, it is necessary that the best of cotton be used in order that the threads may be fine and tightly spun, otherwise the resulting curtain will be of very low quality. This, otherwise wasted, selvage material is what we prefer to use for the making of our improved mops.

In order to more fully understand our improved mops it is advisable to first describe the method by which they are made. Referring to Figs. 3-7 it will be seen in Fig. 3 that the strip I of selvage cut from a bolt of netting, comprises the selvage proper 2 together with a portion of the netting 3. This strip I of selvage is wound on a spool 4 which is loosely mounted, on a vertical axis, on the twisting machine illustrated diagrammatically in Fig. 5. This twisting machine comprises a driven double pulley 5, mounted on a vertical shaft 6, passing loosely through the axis of the spool 4. An arm 1 extends laterally from the shaft 6 and is provided with an eye 8 at its end. A fixed eye 9 is mounted in a convenient place overhead, preferably substantially in the line of the axis of the shaft 6. The end of the strip I of selvage is passed through the eyes 8 and 9 and led thence to the loop-form ing machine. Other forms of twisting machines may be used, the above being one of the simplest forms of such a machine.

The loop-forming machine is illustrated diagrammatically in Figs. 5 and 6, and consists of a pulley l9 driven from the said pulley 5 of the twisting machine and geared by suitable reduction gears to a horizontal shaft H carrying a large gear with two diametrically opposite arms I2. Each of these arms I2 carries a rod I3 at its outer end, said rods being threaded outward from said arms I2 and extending horizontally therefrom (Fig. 6) Each rod I3 is provided with a gear wheel I4 adjacent the arms I2 and these gears I4 are adapted to engage the fixed fragmentary gear I5. The gear I5 is of such length that the gear I4 and the attached rod I3 rotate through one revolution each time they come into engagement with each other as the arm l2 revolves about the center of the shaft l I. The shaft II extends out a considerable distance from the ends of the rods I3 in order to provide a support for the completed mops as they come from the looping rods I3.

When the above machinery is set in motion, withone end of the strip I passing through the eyes 8 and 9 as above described and attached to one of the arms I2, the rotation of the shaft II revolves the rods I3 about the center of said shaft H and winds the strip I thereon, thus pulling it from the spool 4. As the eye 8 simultaneously revolves about the center of the shaft 6, it twists the strip I between it and the fixed eye 9 into a twisted rope I6 (Fig. 4). This rope I6 is thus pulled to the looping machine. The untwisted strip I may now be cut off and the twisted rope I6, of which the mop is to be made, is substituted and fed continuously to the roots of the rods I3 as they revolve. But as each said rod revolves about the axis of the shaft II, past the fixed gear I5, the gears I4 thereon temporarily mesh with the said gear I5 rotating the rods I3 on their own axes through one revolution; and since these rods l3 are threaded outward from the arms I2, the twisted rope I6 is fed outward along the rods I 3 in a continuous series of flat loops.

When the rods I3 are full, the machine is stopped, and clamp wires I! are passed above and below the loops thus formed, close to the shaft II, one clamp covering the number of loops which will be formed into one mop (three are shown in Fig. 6). Then the machine is started up again.

Now, as one of the rods I3 is rotated by the gears l4 and I5, the loop which was at the end of the said rod, is pushed off the rod by the threads thereon with the result that it is no longer held in place except by the shaft II and the clamp I! at the center. The twisted rope I6 forming the open fiat loop then at once reacts to twist itself into a duplex strand I8 (Fig. 7). Since this twisting of the rope IS on itself is caused by the reaction of the twists in the rope (formed by the twisting machine) the strand I8 will be found to have an opposite twist to that of the rope of which it is formed, that is to say, if the rope has a right-hand twist as it comes from the twisting machine to the loop-forming machine, the strands delivered by the loop-forming machine will be found to have a left-hand twist.

As the machine continues to operate, all the strands which are held by one clamp I! are delivered consecutively and alternately on one side and then on the other and the mop is held by the shaft II and may be removed from the looping machine by cutting the last strand l8. This mop material is then turned over to the sewing department where a suitable tape I9 is bound thereon at the center in the usual manner, the clamp I'I having been removed (Figs. 1 and 2). The continued operation of the machine therefore produces mop after mop.

Thus it will be seen that this mop, so construoted, comprises a series of duplex strands I8, alternating on each side of the center, and formed of one continuous rope I6 of twisted fabric material extending from end to end of the mop, each strand being formed of one-half of a flat loop of such twisted rope, twisted back on itself, to form a duplex strand, and each duplex strand having a twist opposite to the twist of the rope of which it is made.

Now, by reference to Fig. 3, it will be seen that the strip I of netting comprises partly the selvage 2 and the netting 3. When such material, having this unbalanced condition, is twisted and formed into strands and wetted, it will be found that the strands become tighter and the small loops at the free ends of the strands I8 (Fig. 7) close tighter so that the casual appearance of the strands is about the same as a rope with smooth out ends.

As already seen, in Fig. 7, it is evident that there is no possibility of lint breaking away from these ends since each strand end is a closed loop and not a string end, and since the weft threads are woven into the selvage 2 and the selvage is twisted into the rope I6, there is very little chance of any weft threads breaking away from the mop to form undesirable lint.

It is, of course, understood that if the material being used is not sufficiently bulky for our purpose, two or more strips of such material may be fed together into the twisting machine, thus forming a rope of greater bulk and increasing the size of the strands.

Having described our invention, what we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A mop formed of a continuous narrow strip of open-meshed fabric, twisted along its entire length into a continuous rope; the rope being formed into two series of reaction-twisted duplex strands alternating on the two sides of a central bound portion.

2. A mop formed of a continuous strip of fabric, twisted along its entire length into a continuous rope; said rope being divided into a series of long loops; each loop being bound at its center into shorter loops alternately on one side or the other of said bound center; each such shorter loop being free at its end and twisted by its own reaction into a duplex strand leading out from said bound center.

3. A mop formed of a plurality of continuous strips of open-meshed fabric, twisted together to form a single rope; said rope being divided into a series of long loops; each loop being bound at its center into shorter loops alternately on one side or the other of said bound center; each shorter loop being free at its end and twisted by its own reaction into a duplex strand leading out from said bound center.

4. A mop formed of a continuous strip of openmeshed fabric in which one edge is provided with closer warp threads than the other, twisted along its entire length into a continuous rope; said rope being divided into a series of long loops; each loop being bound at its center into shorter loops alternately on one side or the other of said bound center; each shorter loop being free at its end and twisted by its own reaction into a duplex strand leading out from said bound center.

5. The art of making mops formed of a continuous narrow strip of fabric, consisting of continuously twisting the fabric into a rope; windin said rope around two widely separated points to form a continuous series of flat loops of twisted fabric; clamping each said loop substantially centrally between said winding points to form two smaller loops, one on each side of the clamp; releasing alternately and consecutively each said smaller loop from said winding points thereby permitting said loop to back-twist upon itself under the reaction of said first twist to form a twisted duplex strand having a closed end; and binding the centers together at said clamp to form the mop.

FRED WEAVER. FREDERICK N. MCCARTY. 

